“Procedural Violations in the Trial of the Woman Taken in Adultery”

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:36 am By Dan Peterson

I’m sorry. I’ve been delinquent in calling your attention to newly-appeared items from the Interpreter Foundation. But I’ll try to make that up in this entry. Today, a new article appeared in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: Steven T. Densley, Jr., “Procedural Violations in the Trial of the Woman Taken in Adultery” https://www.mormoninterpreter.com/procedural-violations-in-the-trial-of-the-woman-taken-in-adultery/ Abstract: The story in John 8 of the woman taken in adultery is sometimes used to argue that... Read more

New Testament Notes 253-255

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:42 am By Dan Peterson

Matthew 19:13-15 Mark 10:13-16 Luke 18:15-17 Compare Matthew 18:3; John 3:3, 5 It’s extremely difficult for me to imagine that the Person depicted in these verses, holding the attitudes toward little children that are revealed in this episode, could also (as some Christian denominations have held) have ordained that infants and children, if they die without baptism, are forever denied entrance into heaven. Jesus’ attention to little children tells us many things. Among them, we learn... Read more

Why in the world go to Iran?

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:44 am By Dan Peterson

Why, a reader of a previous entry asks — yes, this blog has at least one other reader beside you — would anybody even want to go to a dangerous, fascist, theocratic, totalitarian place like the Islamic Republic of Iran? To which, with all due respect, my response is: Really? Seriously? Why on earth wouldn’t I want to go to Iran? Persia — Iran’s historic name — is the home of one of the very greatest... Read more

It’s all “comprised within the Gospel”

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:46 am By Dan Peterson

Here are a few items of temple-related news that you might have missed: “Public Open House Begins for Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple” “Open House Begins for Brazil’s Seventh Temple: 164th temple in the world” “Memphis Tennessee Temple Opens Doors to the Public” “Plans Unveiled for Salt Lake Temple Renovation: Details and project renderings have been released regarding the upcoming closure and renovation of the historic Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of... Read more

It’s still true

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:49 am By Dan Peterson

On Wednesday, I posted a blog entry here under the title of “All too convenient ‘coincidences.’” It’s a quotation, in its entirety, from the Anglo-American theoretical physicist Paul Davies. Paul Davies is someone whom I’ve quoted more than once here. I find him quite interesting. Here, for example, are a pair of quotations from Professor Davies thatnhave been featured here in the past: “It may seem bizarre, but in my opinion science offers a surer path to God... Read more

Remembering an academic conference that I once attended in an ideologically hostile location

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:51 am By Dan Peterson

I’ve been thinking, lately, about “safe spaces” on college campuses, and about the desire that some potential participants in academic conferences express for “safety” — meaning, by safety, not the reasonable assurance that they won’t be physically assaulted but, if not altogether affirmation for their ideological positions and lifestyle choices, at least no sense, however muted and implicit, of rejection of or dissent from those choices and positions. And I find myself thinking, in that context, of... Read more

New Testament Notes 250-252

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:54 am By Dan Peterson

John 10:19-21 Some appear to imagine that, while religious questions today are ambiguous and while contemporary religious claims are disputable and usually disputed, matters would have been much clearer had they only lived back in the days of Jesus. Passages such as this one prove that, on the whole, the imagined clarity didn’t exist then, either. In this life, absent divine grace, we mostly see through a glass, darkly. That’s pretty plainly the way it’s... Read more

Kulchur and Me, or, Die Bekenntnisse eines Hochstaplers

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:57 am By Dan Peterson

I posted a blog entry the other day that included the photograph and the caption above. I’ve now taken that entry down. (I’ll be happy to explain why I did so. But only privately — no, I wasn’t rebuked by Patheos for the post [why on earth would I be?] nor ordered to remove it by the BYU administration [some folks have overactive imaginations] — and not publicly. I’m hoping that the situation to which I was referring... Read more

Tel Dan, just a little bit

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 12:58 am By Dan Peterson

On the second of my two immediately upcoming tours in Israel, we’ll be visiting the wonderfully-named northern site of Dan. I’ve driven by it several times a year for the past decade but haven’t actually spent time on the site for a very long time. So I think that I’ll write up some preliminary notes for myself about the place. Unsurprisingly, Dan, which was the northernmost city of the biblical Kingdom of Israel (both before the division... Read more

Can anything good come out of Provo?

Last updated on: April 27, 2019 at 1:00 am By Dan Peterson

Here’s some recent news from Brigham Young University that a few folks out there might find of interest: “Inspired BYU grad a force against global disease” “BYU marriage and family therapy program honored nationally for research” “US News 2020 Rankings: BYU Law and Business moving up in Top 40” “BYU graphic design student tops national competition at CommandX” “Four green thumbs: BYU senior wins 4th landscaping championship” “BYU wins national landscape competition... Read more